“Write a letter quickly to summon Dalang back,” Old Shopkeeper Li coughed and said as the family sat together in the evening, each lost in their thoughts.
“Yes, Dalang should return. Who knows how this matter will unfold? Those Du brothers are both unreliable—we can’t count on them entirely,” Madam Wu commented while watching the oil lamp’s flickering flame, her voice full of concern.
“Dalang wrote a few days ago saying he’d return soon. My younger brother might come along too. Dalang mentioned in his letter that they’d dug two stone pits in Wuyuan with quite good yields,” said Madam Zhao.
“I’ve already asked Xiger to send a message through the carriage service. I’m sure Big Brother will rush back,” Zhenniang added.
“Amitabha Buddha, the sooner he returns, the better. This time, our family will certainly need to spend money to resolve this trouble,” Madam Wu said, somewhat relieved to hear the good news from Wuyuan.
“It’s all because of Dalang’s wife…” Madam Zhao muttered.
“Don’t just blame Dalang’s wife. Isn’t all this money earned by Dalang? Yet you keep such a tight grip on it—how can his wife not feel resentful?” Madam Wu retorted irritably.
Old Shopkeeper Li sat silently on the side, deep in thought with half-closed eyes. He never intervened in the disputes between the family’s women, letting Madam Wu chide Madam Zhao as she wished. Though he privately agreed with Madam Wu’s words—Dalang’s wife was good in every way except for her tight hold on money.
“We can’t say all the money was earned by Dalang alone. Whether it’s the coal stoves or the Wuyuan mines, weren’t they all Zhenniang’s ideas? Dalang’s wife is easily swayed, and her mother is always protecting her two sons, constantly trying to take advantage of her. Aren’t I just trying to prevent her brothers from deceiving her? How can I not keep a tight hold on the money? Besides, I want to save more for Zhenniang. Her situation is different from others—how can she manage without some savings?” Madam Zhao explained with a hint of grievance in her voice.
“Thank you for your concern, Mother,” Zhenniang said from the side. Despite Madam Zhao’s various flaws, her caring heart still warmed Zhenniang.
“Ah…” Madam Wu fell silent.
“Enough. Let’s leave it at that. You’re not entirely wrong—saving money for Zhenniang is right, but we must also give Madam Du her due,” Old Shopkeeper Li said.
“Yes,” Madam Zhao responded.
“Zhenniang, don’t rely entirely on the Du brothers for the medicine shop either. Tomorrow, go make arrangements—our Li family will pay what we should. These are matters of life and death,” Old Shopkeeper Li continued, addressing Zhenniang.
“I understand, Grandfather. I’ll visit the city’s medicine shops first thing tomorrow morning,” Zhenniang replied.
“Good,” Old Shopkeeper Li nodded.
Everyone then retired to their rooms as the night grew late. With Madam Du at her parents’ home, Xiaoguang was being cared for by Madam Zheng.
How could anyone sleep with such matters weighing on their minds? Zhenniang tossed and turned in bed all night, finally falling asleep only when dawn began to break.
When she next opened her eyes, she heard Water Uncle’s wooden clapper announcing hot water in the alley.
Zhenniang got dressed and rose, thinking that nobody would have the mind to light the coal stove for hot water this morning, so she’d better fetch some.
With this thought, she took a copper kettle and opened the courtyard door, preparing to get hot water.
To her surprise, as soon as she opened the door, she saw someone sitting beside it. Zhenniang was startled, but upon closer inspection, she realized it was Madam Du.
“Sister-in-law, when did you return? Why didn’t you come inside? Why are you sitting here at the door?” Zhenniang exclaimed in surprise, hurriedly asking while dropping the kettle to help Madam Du up.
She felt Madam Du’s body covered in frost, even her temples were touched with frost, showing she must have been sitting at the door for quite some time.
“Sister-in-law, how long have you been sitting here?” Zhenniang cried out again, then forcefully helped Madam Du up: “No, Sister-in-law, we must get you inside to warm up, or you’ll fall ill from the cold.”
Zhenniang spoke while pulling Madam Du toward the house. Madam Du just groaned, letting herself be dragged along. Though she was thin, she was somewhat limp now, making it impossible for Zhenniang to move her. Zhenniang had to call out, “Mother, come quickly!”
“What is it, what’s happening?” Hearing the commotion outside, the light-sleeping Madam Zhao and Madam Zheng came running out.
“I don’t know what happened, but when I opened the door this morning, Sister-in-law was sitting outside. She must have been there for a long time—there’s frost in her hair,” Zhenniang explained.
“Quick, let’s get her inside.” Madam Zheng rushed forward to help Zhenniang drag Madam Du into the house. Winter had arrived, and the area near the city gate was particularly cold and damp. Even inside, the house was freezing.
“I’ll go prepare a brazier,” Madam Zheng said, hurrying to the kitchen.
Zhenniang helped Madam Du to the bed, wrapping her in blankets.
“Tell us what happened. You’re useless just sitting there dumbstruck. Speak up so we can figure something out,” Madam Zhao sat down and urged Madam Du impatiently. What could have happened? It was truly nerve-wracking.
Madam Du finally sniffled and opened her mouth, her teeth still chattering, clearly still affected by the cold.
At this moment, Madam Zheng returned with the brazier. Zhenniang worried that Madam Du was too cold, didn’t let her warm herself directly by the fire, instead placing it to the side to slowly warm the room.
After a while, when Madam Du had recovered somewhat, she suddenly burst into tears.
“Crying, crying, always crying. What use is crying now? Quickly tell us what happened!” Madam Zhao shouted irritably.
“My brothers have run away, and my mother tried to hang herself at home,” Madam Du finally revealed.
It turned out that when Madam Du had rushed back to the Du household yesterday, everything was already in chaos. Initially, Madam Shen and the Du brothers still refused to admit fault, but after Madam Du told them about Zhenniang discovering tung oil in the cooking oil, they became frightened.
Therefore, following Madam Du’s instructions, they explained to everyone the arrangement discussed with the Li family about handling the situation. They agreed to pay the medical expenses first. As for later compensation, that would need time for proper discussion.
Given this promise from the Du family, and considering that treating the illness was most urgent, everyone left. At least the Du family had explained.
The compensation issues would have to be discussed later, step by step. Following this process, the matter should have settled down.
However, unexpectedly, in the middle of the night, Madam Du felt uneasy and wanted to discuss the future compensation issues with her brothers. She thought since she couldn’t sleep, her brothers probably couldn’t either, so they might as well talk about it.
But when she got up and called Madam Shen to find her brothers, they discovered that Du Da and Du Er had fled in the night, and worse, they had taken all the oil shop’s money with them.
Madam Shen was so angry she wanted to hang herself.
Madam Du realized that with her brothers gone, this burden would inevitably fall on the Li family. The Du family, with only Madam Shen remaining after Father Du’s early death, couldn’t possibly handle it. So she asked her aunt to look after Madam Shen and rushed home in the middle of the night to tell her family the news.
But when she reached the door, she lost her nerve, fearing that Madam Zhao might divorce her in anger. Madam Du knew well that Madam Zhao was capable of doing just that.
So, in this hesitation, she sat down at the door, becoming confused and not even realizing how cold she had become.
Hearing the Sister-in-law’s story, Zhenniang was beyond furious. She knew the Du brothers were lacking in character, but she hadn’t imagined they could be this bad.
Meanwhile, Madam Zhao had started cursing: “Those worthless creatures! Why don’t they just die? Now that they’ve run away, they should get hit by a cart on the road, or drown in a boat, better to die out there!”
“What’s all this about?” At this moment, Old Shopkeeper Li and Madam Wu came out from the next room, asking.
Zhenniang explained about the Du brothers’ escape.
“Grandfather, I’m afraid this matter will fall on our family now,” Zhenniang said with a deep breath.
Old Shopkeeper Li nodded, then asked Zhenniang, “How do you plan to handle it?”
“Since we can’t avoid this situation, we won’t try to. Even if we have to take a loss, it should be an open loss, not a hidden one,” Zhenniang replied.
“What do you mean?” Madam Zhao quickly asked.
“Are you thinking of taking over the oil shop completely?” Old Shopkeeper Li asked, seeming to have reached the same conclusion as Zhenniang.
“That’s right. Since the Du brothers have fled and this matter falls to our family, the oil shop must become ours. The Du brothers will have no share in it anymore,” Zhenniang said through gritted teeth.
The Du brothers’ behavior was truly infuriating.
Zhenniang made this decision because there was no other choice. Since they couldn’t avoid this situation, they had to make the best of it. If they were going to bear the responsibility for the oil shop’s problems, then the shop should belong to the Li family.
This oil shop was considered quite substantial in the county, with complete property, warehouses, and oil presses. It was a significant asset that shouldn’t be passed up.
More importantly, they couldn’t continue to be entangled with the Du brothers, so taking over the oil shop completely was necessary.
Conveniently, the ink shop had secured ten years’ usage rights to the Luo family’s pine grove, where they had planted tung oil trees. Soon they wouldn’t need to send their oil to other shops for pressing. From a long-term perspective, taking over this oil shop wouldn’t be a loss.
“Have you considered what will happen if the Du brothers return and try to fight our family for the oil shop?” Old Shopkeeper Li reminded her.
“We needn’t worry. With the Du brothers gone, this tung oil poisoning case will certainly go to court. The County Magistrate will require us to handle it, and we can use this opportunity to request that he officially award the oil shop to us. Otherwise, we have no reason to bear all these responsibilities. The County Magistrate will have to issue an arrest warrant for the Du brothers. But that won’t be resolved quickly, and the poisoned citizens can’t wait. When the citizens cause an uproar, it will be the Magistrate who has a headache,” Zhenniang explained.
For the sake of local stability, as long as their Li family agreed to handle the aftermath, the County Magistrate would certainly make such a judgment, as it would be reasonable and justified.
Moreover, after paying so much, they couldn’t just give up the oil shop and let the Du brothers benefit. If they didn’t give it up, would they wait for the Du brothers to return and become entangled with them again? So, they had to take action when the opportunity presented itself.
“Good, let’s settle it this way,” Old Shopkeeper Li decided.